Looking to buy house/condo
 

Alright guys, since you are the experts, I thought I would ask you lot. I've got some money saved up and was thinking of investing it into property. I've been talking to some people and they have told me to invest into foreclosure properties, as they are the most safe investments right now. My question is how do I go about finding these properties?? Would like to invest here in BC, but don't mind investing in the states either. Thanks in advance for any input, and sorry if this sounds like a noob question!

get a realtor to do the searching for you...really

Well the economy is going to shit and the housing market is fucked. It is projected that house prices in the Lower Mainland can fall as much as 30% in the next 2 to 3 years making now the worse possible time to invest in property. Your best bet would be to continue saving money for the next few years and invest when you think the housing market has bottomed.

Purchasing a place in Arizona, Las Vegas, or Florida might be a good idea. If you speak to a local real estate agent, he's probably going to convince you into purchasing something local in order to make commission. You need to do your own research.

30% in 2-3 years? My opinion (I work in the industry) is that Arizona, Las Vegas (perhaps), could be a decent buy in a couple years, definately not now though... I have a connection that is selling condos in Arizona to Canadians, he says it hasnt ever been worse than it is now. Forget about Florida, property taxes are 3x more for foreign investors than local ones, plus out of town strata votes don't count (written into their statutory code).

I think locally is the best place to buy, you can see your investment anytime you want, you know who's managing it b/c you've met them face to face plus where's the land in the downtown core? Are they going to start shipping in dirt from surrounding areas? Not likely... In other words, while areas far outside vancouver may see larger drops, the downtown core also will follow suit, just not as much. Also, this increase in listings has decreased vacancy rates to lower than 0.3 percent now, down 50% YTD, which means rising rents, which is a great thing if you're a landlord.

As an investor you have to think outside of just "what is the market doing right now". If you're thinking long term, 25 years from now when your condo or investment property is fully paid off, and it's worth over a million, and the rent has paid it off in full b/c of vancouver's typically very low vacancy rate with high returns, you'll be thanking yourself you didn't listen to those that said you shouldn't invest just b/c the market is doing this and that right now.

PM me, and I can help you more with this, I'm not a realtor, however I work with investors and funding property investments. Cheers, and happy new year!

Please feel free to comment on this thread: http://www.revscene.net/forums/showt...=528401&page=3

I am very interested in discussing the points you have made.